An overtime loss to Missouri on Saturday was the 13 in the past 14 games against SEC opponents for Tennessee and coach Derek Dooley. / Jim Brown, US Presswire

by David Climer, USA TODAY Sports

by David Climer, USA TODAY Sports

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- With 30 seconds remaining in a tie game and with two timeouts in hand, Derek Dooley decided the best course of action was to let the clock run out.

After Tennessee lost to Missouri 51-48 in four overtimes on Saturday, there was the unmistakable sense that Dooley's time as Vols coach also expired.

It's time for a change. Even at the cost of a $5 million buyout, UT simply can't afford to keep Dooley around for a fourth season. His body of work just doesn't merit it.

This was UT's sixth loss of the season and its fifth in the past six games, a skid broken only by the 55-48 survival act against Troy a week ago. As the defeats have piled up, so has the distinct feeling that Dooley's days as coach are numbered.

In his post-game press conference, Dooley looked like a beaten man. Asked about his job security, he said:

"I don't know. I'm hurtin' because of the game and the kids and they played their tails off. There's a lot of negativity. That comes with the territory."

With the loss, Dooley one-upped himself in SEC ineptitude. After opening conference play 0-5 in his previous two seasons at UT, his current Vols are 0-6 in the SEC with games remaining against Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Other numbers are stacked against him. UT has won only once in its last 14 SEC games. Since a 3-1 start last season, the Vols are just 6-12.

UT athletics director Dave Hart has steered clear of the media for the last few weeks. The silence is deafening. Given how aimlessly the program is meandering along under Dooley, he must take action.

The prudent thing to do would be to announce Dooley's dismissal â?? effective at the end of the season -- this week. That way, Dooley could coach his team against Vanderbilt and Kentucky while the powers-that-be at UT could get started on a coaching search.

Is that fair? Not really. When Dooley was hired in January 2010, he inherited a dumpster fire. He has done a decent job of fortifying the Vols' roster and re-establishing discipline and accountability on the team.

Ina perfect world, he would be given a fourth season to gauge the success orfailure of his rebuilding effort.

But it's not a perfect world. In big-time college football you're only as good as your last game.

And Dooley's last game was a disaster.

Even with a 21-7 halftime lead, the Vols cratered against a Missouri team whose only previous SEC win was against woeful Kentucky. After going up 28-14 midway through the third quarter, UT's offense went in the tank for the rest of regulation while the Vols' defense reverted to form.

"You're up the whole game so when you lose, it just brings it down," said cornerback Justin Coleman.

In retrospect, Dooley's faulty strategy late in regulation was part of his undoing. Instead of putting the game in the hands of his team's greatest asset â?? the offense â?? he chose to settle for a tie and go to overtime, which exposed his weakest link â?? the defense.

After Mizzou scored to tie the game 28-28 with 47 seconds remaining â?? on a 25-yard pass play on fourth-and-12, no less â?? the Vols took over at their 30-yard line. Tyler Bray's first-down pass was batted down at the line. On second-and-1, a screen pass went for no gain.

That's when Dooley let the clock click down without running another play. Quizzed on the curious strategy, he said he was trying to get the ball downfield on the first two plays of the series before standing down.

"The first two plays, I was pushing it," he said. "We screwed up both of those plays â?? poor execution. I didn't have confidence we were going to get it on third-and-10."

But what, pray tell, has UT's defense done this season to give Dooley confidence the Vols could get a stop in overtime? Even after limiting Mizzou to 64 yards in the first half, UT back-slid into the same old bad defense that has hamstrung the Vols all season.

The only play UT's defense made in overtime came on the mandatory two-point conversion attempt after Mizzou's touchdown in the third extra period. Officials ruled that L'Damian Washington was out of the end zone when he caught James Franklin's pass.

But UT could not capitalize on the opportunity. After Tyler Bray's touchdown pass to Justin Hunter tied the score, Bray's conversion pass to Marlin Lane fell incomplete.

In the fourth overtime period, UT went for it on fourth-and-3 but Bray's pass skipped off Zach Rogers' hands.

The result is yet another loss in a season that is unraveling before the Vols' very eyes.

"With the players we have on this team, I thought we could compete with anybody in the country," Lane said.